Qatar Petroleum On The Hunt For International Projects

State-held Qatar Petroleum seeks to grow its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and reserves outside Qatar, according to the company’s chief executive officer Saad al-Kaabi.

“You will see us going internationally with some of the partners we have in Qatar, this year and next year...We are in growth mode”, Reuters quoted Kaabi as telling reporters in Doha on Monday.

Qatar Petroleum is and will be in “growth mode for a while”, the manager said, noting that most of the growth would be international.

Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG.

Qatar Petroleum does not see LNG supplies from the U.S. as a threat to its business, Kaabi said.

At the end of October, Qatar Petroleum said that it had created the company Ocean LNG Limited, for the purpose of marketing its future international LNG supply portfolio sourced outside of the State of Qatar. Ocean LNG Limited is a joint venture company in which a Qatar Petroleum affiliate has 70 percent and an ExxonMobil affiliate - 30 percent.

Qatar Petroleum’s CEO said today that the energy giant was interested in further exploring in the area of Cyprus.

At the end of last year, Cyprus’s Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry, and Tourism said it had awarded three offshore blocks — one to Italy’s Eni, one to an Eni/Total partnership, and the other to ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum.

The Qatari state-owned company is also complying with OPEC’s deal to cut crude oil supply in an effort to rebalance and market and raise oil prices. Qatar has pledged to cut 30,000 bpd from a reference production level of 648,000 bpd. Qatar Petroleum had said as early as on December 13 that it would be reducing production levels as of January 1 in line with the OPEC agreement, and started notifying customers of the expected reduced supplies.

Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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